There were renewed demands last night for the auditor looking MPs expenses to
widen his scope after it was claimed several MPs with questionable claims
were "let off the hook."

There was dismay at Westminster that some MPs were not being asked to pay money back for some claims which might be deemed excessive because Sir Thomas Legg has concerned himself primarily with expenses such as cleaning and gardening.

Last night John Mann, a Labour MP, said that Sir Thomas had been “too lenient” in not looking at the wider problem of MPs who have “flipped homes” and benefited from capital gains tax rules.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “People are rightly asking why certain MPs have not had to pay back money for certain things and that seems to be because Sir Thomas has not been consistent or strict enough. The idea that he has been unfair is an absurdity.

“Someone who has paid back money on something they did in good faith will be looking at those who have maximised the allowances by ducking and diving in the property market and ask where the consistency is.

“Capital gains tax is a big issue and that is certainly something he should look at as it will not go away in the future either.”

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John Bercow, the Speaker, was also forced to deny reports that he had twice urged Sir Thomas to drop his plan for caps on cleaning and gardening expenses but was rebuffed. His spokesman said he did support backdated caps.

Norman Baker, a Liberal Democrat MP, said that those “big fish” who had claimed tens of thousands in mortgage interest payments needed to have the spotlight trained on them

He said: “He [Sir Thomas] needs to answer the question as to why, if it's going to be retrospective and beyond what MPs thought the rules were going to be reinterpreted as, he's concentrating on gardening and cleaning and relatively small matters and not the bigger abuses ...(such as) the house flipping.

"He's been inconsistent in the way he has approached this, he's letting the big fish off the hook and the small fish have been gathered up."

Mr Baker did recommend that MPs pay the money demanded from them.

But he added: “I also want to make sure that if the small fish are paying the money back, the big fish, who've made in some cases tens of thousands of pounds out of the system, are having to pay that back as well.

"These people who've set up their country estate as their second home and a box room in London somewhere as their main home and they then charge the tax payer vast sums for doing up their country estate, that's clearly very close to fraud."

There are a number of MPs who have been given a clean bill of health or only ordered to pay back small amounts despite questions over their home deals and mortgage payments.

Foremost among them is Elliot Morley, the former Labour minister. He was claimed for mortgage interest payments of £16,000 - 18 months after the mortgage was paid off.

He repaid the money and announced he was standing down at the next general election.

Hazel Blears, the former communities secretary, wrote out a cheque for £13,332 and brandished it on TV after admitting she did not pay capital gains tax on the £45,000 profit from the sale of a flat she designated as a second home. She has been ordered to pay back £225 for furniture.

David Chaytor, the Labour MP, has not been asked to make any repayments, despite The Daily Telegraph’s revelation that he has claimed £13,000 for a mortgage that had already been paid off. He will not stand at the election after making what he described as “an unforgivable error.”

However, his reprieve may only be temporary as he is also being investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

Shahid Malik, a Labour minister, who ran up the highest expenses claim of any MP, has been told he has nothing to pay back in the expenses audit.

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, used an article in yesterday’s edition of The Daily Telegraph to call on Sir Thomas to widen his expenses inquiry so it also examined mortgages, “flipping” of second homes, and capital gains tax irregularities.

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, the first meeting of MPs since July, the expenses issue was not raised. However, Mr Clegg was jeered when he got up to ask Gordon Brown a question of Afghanistan, such is the hostility to further examination of MPs expenses.